welcome to my blog viewers,,,,
Monday, June 20, 2011
Saturday, May 21, 2011
HACKING TIPS
Access Free Airtel GPRS Using TeaShark Browser
TeaShark, a mobile browser like Opera Mini, allow you to access Airtel GPRS for FREE.
Shockingly it has nothing to do with modifying any Airtel settings or any kind of hack.
Shockingly it has nothing to do with modifying any Airtel settings or any kind of hack.
Here is how I used this…
* Download TeaShark v. 312. Its free and being JAR file it can be installed on most handsets.
* Open it from your mobile and select AirTel Live as access point.
* That’s it! Open any site from TeaShark and you won’t be charged anything.
* Open it from your mobile and select AirTel Live as access point.
* That’s it! Open any site from TeaShark and you won’t be charged anything.
Note for the first time, when TeaShark starts, it may take more than one minute to initialize. Also this one time initialization may fail many times. But don’t loose your heart!
As of now, this trick is limited to handsets only.
Note : “Subscribe to Packet Data First”
This means you need to activate AirTel Live service which is free.
Contact customer care to get it activated.
Also select only AirTel Live as access point when prompted by TeaShark.
This means you need to activate AirTel Live service which is free.
Contact customer care to get it activated.
Also select only AirTel Live as access point when prompted by TeaShark.
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Parallel ATA
Parallel ATA
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  ATA connector on the right, with two motherboard ATA sockets on the left. | |||
| Type | Internal storage device connector | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Production history | |||
| Designer | Western Digital, subsequently amended by many others | ||
| Designed | 1986 | ||
| Superseded by | Serial ATA (2003) | ||
| General specifications | |||
| Hot pluggable | No | ||
| External | No | ||
| Cable | 40 or 80 wires ribbon cable | ||
| Pins | 40 | ||
| Data | |||
| Width | 16 bits | ||
| Bitrate | 16 MB/s originally later 33, 66, 100 and 133 MB/s | ||
| Max. devices | 2 (master/slave) | ||
| Protocol | Parallel | ||
| Pin out | |||
 | |||
| Pin 1 | Reset | ||
| Pin 2 | Ground | ||
| Pin 3 | Data 7 | ||
| Pin 4 | Data 8 | ||
| Pin 5 | Data 6 | ||
| Pin 6 | Data 9 | ||
| Pin 7 | Data 5 | ||
| Pin 8 | Data 10 | ||
| Pin 9 | Data 4 | ||
| Pin 10 | Data 11 | ||
| Pin 11 | Data 3 | ||
| Pin 12 | Data 12 | ||
| Pin 13 | Data 2 | ||
| Pin 14 | Data 13 | ||
| Pin 15 | Data 1 | ||
| Pin 16 | Data 14 | ||
| Pin 17 | Data 0 | ||
| Pin 18 | Data 15 | ||
| Pin 19 | Ground | ||
| Pin 20 | Key or VCC_in | ||
| Pin 21 | DDRQ | ||
| Pin 22 | Ground | ||
| Pin 23 | I/O write | ||
| Pin 24 | Ground | ||
| Pin 25 | I/O read | ||
| Pin 26 | Ground | ||
| Pin 27 | IOCHRDY | ||
| Pin 28 | Cable select | ||
| Pin 29 | DDACK | ||
| Pin 30 | Ground | ||
| Pin 31 | IRQ | ||
| Pin 32 | No connect | ||
| Pin 33 | Addr 1 | ||
| Pin 34 | GPIO_DMA66_Detect | ||
| Pin 35 | Addr 0 | ||
| Pin 36 | Addr 2 | ||
| Pin 37 | Chip select 1P | ||
| Pin 38 | Chip select 3P | ||
| Pin 39 | Activity | ||
| Pin 40 | Ground | ||
The Parallel ATA standard is the result of a long history of incremental technical development, which began with the original AT Attachment interface, developed for use in early PC AT equipment. The ATA interface itself evolved in several stages from Western Digital's original Integrated Drive Electronics (IDE) interface. As a result, many near-synonyms for ATA/ATAPI and its previous incarnations are still in common informal use. After the introduction of Serial ATA in 2003, the original ATA was retroactively renamed Parallel ATA.
Parallel ATA cables have a maximum allowable length of only 18 in (457 mm). Because of this limit, the technology normally appears as an internal computer storage interface. For many years ATA provided the most common and the least expensive interface for this application. It has largely been replaced by Serial ATA (SATA) in newer systems.
Contents
|
History and terminology
The standard was originally conceived as "PC/AT Attachment" as its primary feature was a direct connection to the 16-bit ISA bus introduced with the IBM PC/AT. The "AT" in "IBM PC/AT" is an initialism for "Advanced Technology," but that term does not appear in current or recent versions of the ATA specification; it is simply "AT Attachment". This name was chosen to avoid possible trademark issues.IDE and ATA-1
The first version of what is now called the ATA/ATAPI interface was developed by Western Digital under the name Integrated Drive Electronics (IDE). Together with Control Data Corporation (who manufactured the hard drive part) and Compaq Computer (into whose systems these drives would initially go), they developed the connector, the signaling protocols, and so on with the goal of remaining software compatible with the existing ST-506 hard drive interface.[2] The first such drives appeared in Compaq PCs in 1986.[3][4]The term Integrated Drive Electronics refers not just to the connector and interface definition, but also to the fact that the drive controller is integrated into the drive, as opposed to a separate controller on or connected to the motherboard. The interface cards used to connect a parallel ATA drive to, for example, a PCI slot are not drive controllers, they are merely bridges between the host bus and the ATA interface. Since the original ATA interface is essentially just a 16-bit ISA slot in disguise, the bridge was especially simple in case of an ATA connector being located on an ISA interface card. The integrated controller presented the drive to the host computer as an array of 512-byte blocks with a relatively simple command interface. This relieved the mainboard and interface cards in the host computer of the chores of stepping the disk head arm, moving the head arm in and out, and so on, as had to be done with earlier ST-506 and ESDI hard drives. All of these low-level details of the mechanical operation of the drive were now handled by the controller on the drive itself. This also eliminated the need to design a single controller that could handle many different types of drives, since the controller could be unique for the drive. The host need only ask for a particular sector, or block, to be read or written, and either accept the data from the drive or send the data to it.
The interface used by these drives was standardized in 1994 as ANSI standard X3.221-1994, AT Attachment Interface for Disk Drives. After later versions of the standard were developed, this became known as "ATA-1".[5][6]
A short-lived, seldom-used implementation of ATA was created for the IBM XT and similar machines that used the 8-bit version of the ISA bus. It has been referred to as "XTA" or "XT Attachment."[7]
Second ATA interface
When PC motherboard makers started to include onboard ATA interfaces in place of the earlier ISA plug-in cards, there was usually only one ATA connector on the board, which could support up to two hard drives. At the time in combination with the floppy drive, this was sufficient for most people, and eventually it became common to have two hard drives installed. When the CD-ROM was developed, many computers would have been unable to accept these drives if they had been ATA devices, due to already having two hard drives installed. Adding the CD-ROM drive would have required removal of one of the drives.SCSI was available as a CD-ROM expansion option at the time, but devices with SCSI were more expensive than ATA devices due to the need for a smart interface that is capable of bus arbitration. SCSI typically added US$ 100-300 to the cost of a storage device, in addition to the cost of a SCSI host adapter.
The less-expensive solution was the addition of a dedicated CD-ROM interface, typically included as an expansion option on a sound card. It was included on the sound card because early business PCs did not include support for more than simple beeps from the internal speaker, and tuneful sound playback was considered unnecessary for early business software. When the CD-ROM was introduced, it was logical to also add digital audio to the computer at the same time (for the same reason, sound cards tended to include a gameport interface for joysticks). An older business PC could be upgraded in this manner to meet the Multimedia PC standard for early software packages that used sound (which required the sound card) and colorful video animation (which required the CD-ROM as floppy disks simply did not have the necessary data capacity).
The second drive interface initially was not well-defined. It was first introduced with interfaces specific to certain CD-ROM drives such as Mitsumi, Sony or Panasonic drives,[8] and it was common to find early sound cards with two or three separate connectors each designed to match a certain brand of CD-ROM drive. This evolved into the standard ATA interface for ease of cross-compatibility, though the sound card ATA interface still usually supported only a single CD-ROM and not hard drives.
This second ATA interface on the sound card eventually evolved into the second motherboard ATA interface which was long included as a standard component in all PCs. Called the "primary" and "secondary" ATA interfaces, they were assigned to base addresses 0x1F0 and 0x170 on ISA bus systems.
EIDE and ATA-2
In 1994, about the same time that the ATA-1 standard was adopted, Western Digital introduced drives under a newer name, Enhanced IDE (EIDE). These included most of the features of the forthcoming ATA-2 specification and several additional enhancements. Other manufacturers introduced their own variations of ATA-1 such as "Fast ATA" and "Fast ATA-2".The new version of the ANSI standard, AT Attachment Interface with Extensions ATA-2 (X3.279-1996), was approved in 1996. It included most of the features of the manufacturer-specific variants.[9][10]
ATA-2 also was the first to note that devices other than hard drives could be attached to the interface:
3.1.7 Device: Device is a storage peripheral. Traditionally, a device on the ATA interface has been a hard disk drive, but any form of storage device may be placed on the ATA interface provided it adheres to this standard.
—from,[10] page 2
ATAPI
As mentioned in the previous sections, ATA was originally designed for, and worked only with hard disks and devices that could emulate them. The introduction of ATAPI (ATA Packet Interface) by a group called the Small Form Factor committee allowed ATA to be used for a variety of other devices that require functions beyond those necessary for hard disks. For example, any removable media device needs a "media eject" command, and a way for the host to determine whether the media is present, and these were not provided in the ATA protocol.The Small Form Factor committee approached this problem by defining ATAPI, the "ATA Packet Interface". ATAPI is actually a protocol allowing the ATA interface to carry SCSI commands and responses; therefore all ATAPI devices are actually "speaking SCSI" other than at the electrical interface. In fact, some early ATAPI devices were simply SCSI devices with an ATA/ATAPI to SCSI protocol converter added on. The SCSI commands and responses are embedded in "packets" (hence "ATA Packet Interface") for transmission on the ATA cable. This allows any device class for which a SCSI command set has been defined to be interfaced via ATA/ATAPI.
ATAPI devices are also "speaking ATA", as the ATA physical interface and protocol are still being used to send the packets. On the other hand, ATA hard drives and solid state drives do not use ATAPI.
ATAPI devices include CD-ROM and DVD-ROM drives, tape drives, and large-capacity floppy drives such as the Zip drive and SuperDisk drive.
The SCSI commands and responses used by each class of ATAPI device (CD-ROM, tape, etc.) are described in other documents or specifications specific to those device classes and are not within ATA/ATAPI or the T13 committee's purview.
ATAPI was adopted as part of ATA in INCITS 317-1998, AT Attachment with Packet Interface Extension (ATA/ATAPI-4).[11][12][13]
UDMA and ATA-4
The ATA/ATAPI-4 also introduced several "Ultra DMA" transfer modes. These initially supported speeds from 16 MByte/s to 33 MByte/second. In later versions faster Ultra DMA modes were added, requiring a new 80-wire cable to reduce crosstalk. The latest versions of Parallel ATA support up to 133 MByte/s.Current terminology
The terms "integrated drive electronics" (IDE), "enhanced IDE" and "EIDE" have come to be used interchangeably with ATA (now Parallel ATA, or PATA).In addition there have been several generations of "EIDE" drives marketed, compliant with various versions of the ATA specification. An early "EIDE" drive might be compatible with ATA-2, while a later one with ATA-6.
Nevertheless a request for an "IDE" or "EIDE" drive from a computer parts vendor will almost always yield a drive that will work with most Parallel ATA interfaces.
Another common usage is to refer to the specification version by the fastest mode supported. For example, ATA-4 supported Ultra DMA modes 0 through 2, the latter providing a maximum transfer rate of 33 megabytes per second. ATA-4 drives are thus sometimes called "UDMA-33" drives, and sometimes "ATA-33" drives. Similarly, ATA-6 introduced a maximum transfer speed of 100 megabytes per second, and some drives complying to this version of the standard are marketed as "PATA/100" drives.
Drive size limitations
See also: Enhanced BIOS
The original ATA specification used a 28-bit addressing mode, allowing for the addressing of 228 (268,435,456) sectors (blocks) of 512 bytes each, resulting in a maximum capacity of 128 GiB (137 GB).[14] The BIOS in early PCs imposed smaller limits such as 8.46 GB, with a maximum of 1024 cylinders, 256 heads and 63 sectors, but this was not a limit imposed by the ATA interface.ATA-6 introduced 48-bit addressing, increasing the limit to 128 PiB (144 PB). As a consequence, any ATA drive of capacity larger than about 137 gigabytes must be an ATA-6 or later drive. Connecting such a drive to a host with an ATA-5 or earlier interface will limit the usable capacity to the maximum of the interface.
Some operating systems, including Windows XP pre-SP 1, and Windows 2000, disable 48-bit LBA by default, requiring the user to take extra steps to use the entire capacity of an ATA drive larger than about 137 gigabytes.[15] Older operating systems, such as Windows 98, do not support 48-bit LBA at all.
Obsolescence
For a long period of time, ATA ruled as the primary storage device interface and in some systems a third and fourth motherboard interface was provided (for example, Promise Ultra-100), for up to eight ATA devices attached to the motherboard.After the introduction of SATA (Serial ATA), use of Parallel ATA declined, and new motherboards had only a single PATA connector, for up to two PATA optical drives, along with (typically) six or more SATA connectors for hard drives and other devices. In new computers, the parallel ATA interface is rarely used, and several PC chipsets have removed support for PATA, and motherboard vendors still wishing to offer ATA with those chipsets must include an additional interface chip.
Parallel ATA interface
ATA's cables have had 40 wires for most of its history (44 conductors for the smaller form-factor version used for 2.5" drives — the extra four for power), but an 80-wire version appeared with the introduction of the Ultra DMA/33 (UDMA) mode. All of the additional wires in the new cable are ground wires, interleaved with the previously defined wires to reduce the effects of capacitive coupling between neighboring signal wires, reducing crosstalk. Capacitive coupling is more of a problem at higher transfer rates, and this change was necessary to enable the 66 megabytes per second (MB/s) transfer rate of UDMA4 to work reliably. The faster UDMA5 and UDMA6 modes also require 80-conductor cables.
40 wire ribbon cable (top)
80 wire ribbon cable (bottom)
Round parallel ATA cables (as opposed to ribbon cables) were eventually made available as they were believed to have less effect on computer cooling and were easier to handle; however, only ribbon cables are supported by the ATA specifications.
- Pin 20
- Pin 28
- Pin 34
Differences between connectors on 80-conductor cables
Each contact comprises a pair of points which together pierce the insulation of the ribbon cable with such precision that they make a connection to the desired conductor without harming the insulation on the neighboring wires. The center row of contacts are all connected to the common ground bus and attached to the odd numbered conductors of the cable. The top row of contacts are the even-numbered sockets of the connector (mating with the even-numbered pins of the receptacle) and attach to every other even-numbered conductor of the cable. The bottom row of contacts are the odd-numbered sockets of the connector (mating with the odd-numbered pins of the receptacle) and attach to the remaining even-numbered conductors of the cable.
Note the connections to the common ground bus from sockets 2 (top left), 19 (center bottom row), 22, 24, 26, 30, and 40 on all connectors. Also note (enlarged detail, bottom, looking from the opposite side of the connector) that socket 34 of the blue connector does not contact any conductor but unlike socket 34 of the other two connectors, it does connect to the common ground bus. On the gray connector, note that socket 28 is completely missing, so that pin 28 of the drive attached to the gray connector will be open. On the black connector, sockets 28 and 34 are completely normal, so that pins 28 and 34 of the drive attached to the black connector will be connected to the cable. Pin 28 of the black drive reaches pin 28 of the host receptacle but not pin 28 of the gray drive, while pin 34 of the black drive reaches pin 34 of the gray drive but not pin 34 of the host. Instead, pin 34 of the host is grounded.
The standard dictates color-coded connectors for easy identification by both installer and cable maker. All three connectors are different from one another. The blue (host) connector has the socket for pin 34 connected to ground inside the connector but not attached to any conductor of the cable. Since the old 40 conductor cables do not ground pin 34, the presence of a ground connection indicates that an 80 conductor cable is installed. The wire for pin 34 is attached normally on the other types and is not grounded. Installing the cable backwards (with the black connector on the system board, the blue connector on the remote device and the gray connector on the center device) will ground pin 34 of the remote device and connect host pin 34 through to pin 34 of the center device. The gray center connector omits the connection to pin 28 but connects pin 34 normally, while the black end connector connects both pins 28 and 34 normally.
Multiple devices on a cable
If two devices attach to a single cable, one must be designated as device 0 (commonly referred to as master) and the other as device 1 (slave). This distinction is necessary to allow both drives to share the cable without conflict. The master drive is the drive that usually appears "first" to the computer's BIOS and/or operating system. On old BIOSes (Intel 486 era and older), the drives are often referred to by the BIOS as "C" for the master and "D" for the slave following the way DOS would refer to the active primary partitions on each.The mode that a drive must use is often set by a jumper setting on the drive itself, which must be manually set to master or slave. If there is a single device on a cable, it should be configured as master. However, some hard drives have a special setting called single for this configuration (Western Digital, in particular). Also, depending on the hardware and software available, a single drive on a cable can work reliably even though configured as the slave drive (this configuration is most often seen when a CD ROM has a channel to itself).
Cable select
A drive mode called cable select was described as optional in ATA-1 and has come into fairly widespread use with ATA-5 and later. A drive set to "cable select" automatically configures itself as master or slave, according to its position on the cable. Cable select is controlled by pin 28. The host adapter grounds this pin; if a device sees that the pin is grounded, it becomes the master device; if it sees that pin 28 is open, the device becomes the slave device.This setting is usually chosen by a jumper setting on the drive called "cable select", usually marked CS, which is separate from the "master" or "slave" setting.
Note that if two drives are configured as master and slave manually, this configuration does not need to correspond to their position on the cable. Pin 28 is only used to let the drives know their position on the cable; it is not used by the host when communicating with the drives.
With the 40-wire cable it was very common to implement cable select by simply cutting the pin 28 wire between the two device connectors; putting the slave device at the end of the cable, and the master on the middle connector. This arrangement eventually was standardized in later versions. If there is just one device on the cable, this results in an unused stub of cable, which is undesirable for physical convenience and electrical reasons. The stub causes signal reflections, particularly at higher transfer rates.
Starting with the 80-wire cable defined for use in ATAPI5/UDMA4, the master device goes at the end of the 18-inch (460 mm) cable—the black connector—and the slave device goes on the middle connector—the gray one—and the blue connector goes onto the motherboard. So, if there is only one (master) device on the cable, there is no cable stub to cause reflections. Also, cable select is now implemented in the slave device connector, usually simply by omitting the contact from the connector body.
Master and slave clarification
Although they are in extremely common use, the terms "master" and "slave" do not actually appear in current versions of the ATA specifications. The two devices are simply referred to as "device 0" and "device 1", respectively, in ATA-2 and later.It is a common myth that the controller on the master drive assumes control over the slave drive, or that the master drive may claim priority of communication over the other device on the channel. In fact, the drivers in the host operating system perform the necessary arbitration and serialization, and each drive's onboard controller operates independently of the other.
The terms "master" and "slave" have not been without controversy. In 2003, the County of Los Angeles, California, US requested that, when possible, supp
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
LINUX UBUNTU OPERATING SYSTEM
Ubuntu (operating system)
 | |
|---|---|
 Ubuntu 10.10 (Maverick Meerkat) | |
| Company / developer | Canonical Ltd. / Ubuntu Foundation |
| OS family | Unix-like |
| Working state | Current |
| Source model | Free and open source software (with exceptions)[1][2] |
| Initial release | 20 October 2004 |
| Latest stable release | 10.10 (Maverick Meerkat) / 10 October 2010[3] |
| Latest unstable release | 11.04 (Natty Narwhal) Alpha 3 / 3 March 2011[4] |
| Available language(s) | Multilingual (more than 55) |
| Update method | APT (front-ends available) |
| Package manager | dpkg (front-ends like Synaptic available) |
| Supported platforms | i386, amd64 |
| Kernel type | Linux (Monolithic-based Hybrid) |
| Userland | GNU |
| Default user interface | GNOME |
| License | Mainly the GNU GPL and various free software other licenses / plus proprietary binary blobs.[1][2] |
| Official website | ubuntu.com |
Ubuntu (pronounced /ʊˈbʊntuː/)[5][6] is a computer operating system based on the Debian GNU/Linux distribution and distributed as free and open source software. It is named after the Southern African philosophy of Ubuntu ("humanity towards others").[7]
With an estimated global usage of more than 12 million users,[8] Ubuntu is designed primarily for desktop use, although netbook and server editions exist as well.[9] Web statistics suggest that Ubuntu's share of Linux desktop usage is about 50%,[10][11] and indicate upward-trending usage as a web server.[12]
Ubuntu is sponsored by the UK-based company Canonical Ltd., owned by South African entrepreneur Mark Shuttleworth. Canonical generates revenue by selling technical support and services tied to Ubuntu, while the operating system itself is entirely free of charge.
Contents |
History and development process
Ubuntu is a fork of the Debian project's codebase. The original aim of the Ubuntu team was to create an easy-to-use (freedom for users rather than freedom for programmers) Linux desktop with new releases scheduled on a predictable six-month basis, resulting in a more frequently updated system.[13][14]
Ubuntu's first release was on 20 October 2004. Since then, Canonical has released new versions of Ubuntu every six months[15] with commitment to support each release for eighteen months by providing security fixes, patches to critical bugs and minor updates to programs. It was decided that every fourth release, issued on a two-year basis, would receive long-term support (LTS).[13] LTS releases are supported for three years on the desktop and five years on the server.[15]
The latest LTS release is Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid Lynx), released on 29 April 2010, while the latest normal release is Ubuntu 10.10 (Maverick Meerkat), released on 10 October 2010.
Ubuntu packages are based on packages from Debian's unstable branch: both distributions use Debian's deb package format and package management tools (APT and Synaptic). Debian and Ubuntu packages are not necessarily binary compatible with each other, however, and sometimes .deb packages may need to be rebuilt from source to be used in Ubuntu.[16] Many Ubuntu developers are also maintainers of key packages within Debian. Ubuntu cooperates with Debian by pushing changes back to Debian,[17]Ian Murdock, the founder of Debian, has expressed concern about Ubuntu packages potentially diverging too far from Debian to remain compatible.[18] Before release, packages are imported from Debian Unstablefrozen, and packagers then work to ensure that the frozen features interoperate well together. although there has been criticism that this does not happen often enough. In the past, continuously and merged with Ubuntu-specific modifications. A month before release, imports are
Ubuntu is currently funded by Canonical Ltd. On 8 July 2005, Mark Shuttleworth and Canonical Ltd. announced the creation of the Ubuntu Foundation and provided an initial funding of US$10 million. The purpose of the foundation is to ensure the support and development for all future versions of Ubuntu. Mark Shuttleworth describes the foundation as an "emergency fund" (in case Canonical's involvement ends).[19]
On 12 March 2009, Ubuntu announced developer support for 3rd party cloud management platforms, such as for those used at Amazon EC2.[20]
Features
Ubuntu is composed of many software packages, the vast majority are distributed under a free software license. The only exceptions are some proprietary hardware drivers[21] which are needed to safeguard every individual's freedom to use Ubuntu. The main license used is the GNU General Public LicenseGNU Lesser General Public License (GNU LGPL), explicitly declares that users are free to run, copy, distribute, study, change, develop and improve the software. On the other hand, there is also proprietary software available that can run on Ubuntu. Ubuntu focuses on usability, security and stability.[22] The Ubiquity installer allows Ubuntu to be installed to the hard disk from within the Live CD environment, without the need for restarting the computer prior to installation. Ubuntu also emphasizes accessibility and internationalization to reach as many people as possible. Beginning with 5.04, UTF-8 became the default character encoding,[23] which allows for support of a variety of non-Roman scripts. As a security feature, the sudo tool is used to assign temporary privileges for performing administrative tasks, allowing the root account to remain locked, and preventing inexperienced users from inadvertently making catastrophic system changes or opening security holes.[24] PolicyKit is also being widely implemented into the desktop to further harden[jargon]principle of least privilege. (GNU GPL) which, along with the the system through the
Ubuntu comes installed with a wide range of software that includes OpenOffice, Firefox, EmpathyPidgin in versions before 9.10), Transmission, GIMP (in versions prior to 10.04), and several lightweight games (such as Sudoku and chess). Additional software that is not installed by default can be downloaded and installed using the Ubuntu Software Center[25] or the package manager Synaptic, which come pre-installed. Ubuntu allows networking ports to be closed using its firewall, with customized port selection available. End-users can install Gufw (GUI for Uncomplicated Firewall) and keep it enabled.[26] GNOME (the current default desktop) offers support for more than 46 languages.[27] Ubuntu can also run many programs designed for Microsoft Windows (such as Microsoft Office), through Wine or using a Virtual Machine (such as VMware Workstation or VirtualBox). For the upcoming 11.04 release, Canonical intends to drop the GNOME Shell as the default desktop environment in favor of Unity, a graphical interface it first developed for the netbook edition of Ubuntu.[28] (
Ubuntu, unlike Debian, compiles their packages using gcc features such as PIE and Buffer overflow protection to harden their software.[29] These extra features greatly increase security at the performance expense of 1% in 32 bit and 0.01% in 64 bit.[30]
System requirements
The desktop version of Ubuntu currently supports the x86 32 bit and 64 bit architectures. Unofficial support is available for the PowerPC,[31] IA-64 (Itanium) and PlayStation 3 architectures (note however that Sony officially removed support for OtherOS on the PS3 with firmware 3.21, released on 1 April 2010), as well as ARM mobile processors (see HTC HD2).[32] A supported GPU is required to enable desktop visual effects.
| Current Minimum Requirements[33][34][35] | Server | Desktop |
|---|---|---|
| Processor (x86) with the i686 instruction set[36] | 300 MHz | 1 GHz |
| Memory | 128 MB | 512 MB |
| Hard Drive (free space) | 1 GB | 5 GB |
| Monitor Resolution | 640×480 | 1024×768 |
Installation
Installation of Ubuntu is generally performed with the Live CD. The Ubuntu OS can be run directly from the CD (sometimes with a significant performance loss), allowing a user to "test-drive" the OS for hardware compatibility and driver support. The CD also contains the Ubiquity installer,[37] which then can guide the user through the permanent installation process. CD images of all current and past versions are available for download at the Ubuntu web site.[38] Installing from the CD requires a minimum of 256 MiB of RAM.
Users can download a disk image (.iso) of the CD, which can then either be written to a physical medium (CD or DVD), or optionally run directly from a hard drive (via UNetbootin or GRUB). Ubuntu is also available on ARM, PowerPC, SPARC, and IA-64 platforms, although none are officially supported.[39]
Canonical offers Ubuntu[40] and Kubuntu[41] Live installation CDs at no cost, including paid postage for destinations in most countries around the world (via a service called ShipIt). Various third-party programs such as remastersys and Reconstructor are available to create customised copies of the Ubuntu Live CDs.
A Microsoft Windows migration tool, called Migration Assistant (introduced in April 2007),[42] can be used to import bookmarks, desktop background (wallpaper), and various settings from an existing MS Windows installation into a new Ubuntu installation.[43]
Ubuntu and Kubuntu can be booted and run from a USB Flash drive (as long as the BIOS supports booting from USB), with the option of saving settings to the flashdrive. This allows a portable installation that can be run on any PC which is capable of booting from a USB drive.[44] In newer versions of Ubuntu, the USB creator program is available to install Ubuntu on a USB drive (with or without a LiveCD disc).
Wubi, which is included as an option on the Live CD,[45] allows Ubuntu to be installed and run from within a virtual Windows loop device (as a large image file that is managed like any other Windows program via the Windows Control Panel). This method requires no partitioning of a Windows user's hard drive. Wubi also makes use of the Migration Assistant to import users' settings. It is only useful for Windows users and it also incurs a slight performance loss.
Package classification and support
Ubuntu divides all software into four domains to reflect differences in licensing and the degree of support available.[46] Some unsupported applications receive updates from community members, but not from Canonical Ltd.
| Free software | Non-free software | |
|---|---|---|
| Supported | Main | Restricted |
| Unsupported | Universe | Multiverse |
Free software includes only software that has met the Ubuntu licensing requirements,[21] which roughly correspond to the Debian Free Software Guidelines. Exceptions, however, include firmware and fonts, in the Main category, because although they are not allowed to be modified, their distribution is otherwise unencumbered.[citation needed]
Non-free software is usually unsupported (Multiverse), but some exceptions (Restricted) are made for important non-free software. Supported non-free software includes device drivers that can be used to run Ubuntu on some current hardware, such as binary-only graphics card drivers. The level of support in the Restricted category is more limited than that of Main, because the developers may not have access to the source code. It is intended that Main and Restricted should contain all software needed for a general-use GNU/Linux system.[citation needed] Alternative programs for the same tasks and programs for specialized applications are placed in the Universe and Multiverse categories.
In addition to the above, in which the software does not receive new features after an initial release, Ubuntu Backports is an officially recognized repository for backporting newer software from later versions of Ubuntu.[47] The repository is not comprehensive; it consists primarily of user-requested packages, which are approved if they meet quality guidelines. Backports receives no support at all from Canonical, and is entirely community-maintained.
The -updates repository provides updates to stable releases of Ubuntu and are generally installed through update-manager. Each release is given its own -updates repository (e.g. intrepid-updates). The repository is supported by Canonical Ltd. for packages in main and restricted, and by the community for packages in universe and multiverse. All updates to the repository must meet certain requirements and go through the -proposed repository before being made available to the public.[48] Updates will continue to be available until the end of life for the release.
In addition to the -updates repository, the unstable -proposed repository contains uploads which must be confirmed before being copied into -updates. All updates must go through this process to ensure that the patch does truly fix the bug and there is no risk of regression.[49] Updates in -proposed are confirmed by either Canonical or members of the community.
Canonical's partner repository lets vendors of proprietary software deliver their products to Ubuntu users at no cost through the same familiar tools for installing and upgrading software.[50] The software in the partner repository is officially supported with security and other important updates by its respective vendors. Canonical supports the packaging of the software for Ubuntu[50][51][52] and provides guidance to vendors.[50] The partner repository is disabled by default and can be enabled by the user.[53] Some popular products distributed via the partner repository as of August 2010 are Adobe Flash Player, Adobe Reader, Skype and Sun Java.[update]
Availability of third-party software
Ubuntu has a certification system for third party software.[54] Some third-party software that does not limit distribution is included in Ubuntu's multiverse component. The package ubuntu-restricted-extrasMP3 and DVDMicrosoft TrueType core fonts, Sun's Java runtime environment, Adobe's Flash Playercodecs, and unrar, an unarchiver for files compressed in the RAR file format. additionally contains software that may be legally restricted, including support for playback, plugin, many common audio/video
Additionally, several third party application suites are available for purchase through the Canonical web-based store,[citation needed] including software for DVD playback and media codecs.Releases
Main article: List of Ubuntu
releases
| Version | Code name | Release date | Supported until | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Desktop | Server | |||
| 4.10 | Warty Warthog | 2004-10-20 | 2006-04-30 | |
| 5.04 | Hoary Hedgehog | 2005-04-08 | 2006-10-31 | |
| 5.10 | Breezy Badger | 2005-10-13 | 2007-04-13 | |
| 6.06 LTS | Dapper Drake | 2006-06-01 | 2009-07-14 | 2011-06 |
| 6.10 | Edgy Eft | 2006-10-26 | 2008-04-25 | |
| 7.04 | Feisty Fawn | 2007-04-19 | 2008-10-19 | |
| 7.10 | Gutsy Gibbon | 2007-10-18 | 2009-04-18 | |
| 8.04 LTS | Hardy Heron | 2008-04-24 | 2011-04 | 2013-04 |
| 8.10 | Intrepid Ibex | 2008-10-30 | 2010-04-30 | |
| 9.04 | Jaunty Jackalope | 2009-04-23 | 2010-10-23 | |
| 9.10 | Karmic Koala | 2009-10-29 | 2011-04 | |
| 10.04 LTS | Lucid Lynx | 2010-04-29 | 2013-04 | 2015-04 |
| 10.10 | Maverick Meerkat | 2010-10-10 | 2012-04 | |
| 11.04 | Natty Narwhal | 2011-04-28 | 2012-10 | |
| 11.10 | Oneiric Ocelot | 2011-10-? | 2013-04 | |
| Colour | Meaning | |||
| Red | Release no longer supported | |||
| Green | Release still supported | |||
| Blue | Future release | |||
Each Ubuntu release has a version number that consists of the year and month number of the release.[55] For example, the first release was Ubuntu 4.10 as it was released on 20 October 2004. Version numbers for future versions are provisional; if the release is delayed the version number changes accordingly.
Ubuntu releases are also given alliterative code names, using an adjective and an animal (e.g., "Dapper Drake" and "Intrepid Ibex"). With the exception of the first three releases, code names are in alphabetical order, allowing a quick determination of which release is newer. "We might skip a few letters, and we'll have to wrap eventually." says Mark Shuttleworth while describing the naming scheme.[citation needed] Commonly, Ubuntu releases are referred to using only the adjective portion of the code name.[56]
Releases are timed to be approximately one month after GNOME releases (which in turn are about one month after releases of X.org). Consequently, every Ubuntu release comes with an updated version of both GNOME and X.
Upgrades between releases have to be done from one release to the next release (e.g. Ubuntu 10.04 to Ubuntu 10.10) or from one LTS release to the next LTS release (e.g. Ubuntu 8.04 LTS to Ubuntu 10.04 LTS).[57]
The current release is 10.10 (Maverick Meerkat), released on 10 October 2010 (10/10/10). This is a departure from the traditional schedule of releasing at the end of October to get "the perfect 10",[58] and a playful reference to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, since, in binary, 101010 is equal to the number 42, the "Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe and Everything" within the series.[59]
Variants
See also: List of Ubuntu-based Linux distributions
Official Ubuntu editions, which are created and maintained by Canonical and the Ubuntu community and receive full support from Canonical, its partners and the Community, are the following:[62][63]
- Ubuntu Desktop Edition, designed for desktop and laptop PCs.
- Ubuntu Netbook Edition, (formerly Ubuntu Netbook Remix)[64][65] designed for netbooks and other ultra-portables.[66] Ubuntu Netbook Edition is set to be discontinued, as the Unity Interface will be used as default in both Desktop and Netbook Editions.[67]
- Ubuntu Server Edition, made for use in servers.[68]
There are many Ubuntu variants (or derivates) based on the official Ubuntu editions. These Ubuntu variants install a set of packages that differ from the official Ubuntu distributions.
The variants recognized by Canonical as contributing significantly towards the Ubuntu project are the following:[62]
- Edubuntu, a GNOME-based subproject and add-on for Ubuntu, designed for school environments and home users.[69]
- Kubuntu, a desktop distribution using the KDE Plasma Workspaces desktop environment rather than GNOME.
- Mythbuntu, designed for creating a home theater PC with MythTV and uses the Xfce desktop environment.
- Ubuntu Studio, a distribution made for professional video and audio editing, comes with higher-end free editing software and is a DVD .iso image unlike the Live CD the other Ubuntu distributions use.
- Xubuntu, a distribution based on the Xfce desktop environment instead of GNOME, designed to run more efficiently on low-specification computers.
Mythbuntu, Ubuntu Studio, Xubuntu and Gobuntu are not commercially supported by Canonical.[70]
Other variants are created and maintained by individuals and organizations outside of Canonical and they are self governed projects that work more or less closely with the Ubuntu community.[63] Some of the variants, such as Lubuntu, a lightweight variant using LXDE, have the explicit goal of earning official endorsement from Canonical.[71]
Development
The Ubuntu Developer Summit is a gathering of software developers which occurs prior to the release of a new public version of Ubuntu.[72]
At the beginning of a new development cycle, Ubuntu developers from around the world gather to help shape and scope the next release of Ubuntu. The summit is open to the public, but it is not a conference, exhibition or other audience-oriented event. Rather, it is an opportunity for Ubuntu developers, who usually collaborate online, to work together in person on specific tasks.
Reception
Chris Kenyon, vice president for OEM at Canonical Ltd., indicates that because of a lack of registration, any numbers provided for Ubuntu distributions should be treated as estimates.[73] Nevertheless, a number of estimates and the results of surveys have been provided. In an August 2007 survey of 38,500 visitors on DesktopLinux.com, Ubuntu was the most popular distribution with 30.3% of respondents claiming to use it.[74] In January 2009, The New York Times reported that Ubuntu had over ten million users. In June 2009 ZDNet reported, "Worldwide, there are 13 million active Ubuntu users with use growing faster than any other distribution.",[75][76] though Kenyon provided a more conservative estimate of 12 million users in April 2010.[73]
Ubuntu was awarded the Reader Award for best Linux distribution at the 2005 LinuxWorld Conference and Expo in London,[77] received favorable reviews in online and print publications,[78][79]InfoWorld's 2007 Bossie Award for and has won Best Open Source Client OS.[80] In early 2008 PC World named Ubuntu the "best all-around Linux distribution available today", though it criticized the lack of an integrated desktop effects manager.[81]
The public sector has also made use of Ubuntu. The Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Macedonia deployed more than 180,000 Ubuntu GNU/Linux based classroom desktops, and has encouraged every student in the country to use Ubuntu-powered computer workstations.[82] In the beginning of 2008, having successfully deployed 13,000 Fedora Linux systems in schools in the Philippines, ASI, an independent Linux consultant company, was contracted to provide 10,000 Ubuntu systems for schools.[83] The French police, having already started using open source software in 2005 by replacing Microsoft Office with OpenOffice.org in 2005, decided to transition to Ubuntu from Windows XP after the release of Windows Vista in 2006.[84] By March 2009, the Gendarmerie Nationale had already switched 5000 workstations to Ubuntu.[84] Based on the success of that transition, it planned to switch 15,000 more over by the end of 2009 and to have switched all 90,000 workstations over by 2015.[84] Lt. Colonel Guimard announced that the move was very easy and allowed for a 70% saving on the IT budget without having to reduce its capabilities.[84]
In 2008, Jamie Hyneman, co-host of the television series Mythbusters, advocated Linux (specifically giving the example of Ubuntu) as an alternative to proprietary software, citing software bloat as a major hurdle in proprietary operating systems.[85]
Local Communities (LoCos)
In an effort to reach out to users who are less technical, and to foster a sense of community around the distribution, Local Communities,[86] better known as "LoCos", have been established throughout the world. Originally, each country had one LoCo Team. However, in some areas, most notably, the United States, each state or province may establish a team. A LoCo Council approves teams based upon their efforts to either aid in the development or the promotion of Ubuntu.
Vendor support
A number of vendors offer computers with Ubuntu pre-installed, including Hasee, Dell,[87] Tesco, OP3, Gliese IT, System76,[88] Sharp Corporation[89] and the South African company Bravium Computers.[90] Dell and System76 customers are able to choose between 30-day, three-month, and yearly Ubuntu support plans through Canonical.[91] Dell computers (running Ubuntu 10.04) include extra support for ATI Video Graphics, Dell Wireless, Fingerprint Readers, HDMI, Bluetooth, DVD Playback (using LinDVD), and MP3/WMA/WMV.[92]
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